1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical tone generating apparatus, a musical tone generating method and a storage medium, wherein a first kind of number and a second kind of number are used to select a tone color of musical tones to be generated, from a tone color table.
2. Prior Art
A sound source module is known as a musical tone generating apparatus adapted for generating musical tones in accordance with MIDI events entered through a keyboard, sequencer, or the like.
In an example of the sound source module, the tone color of a musical tone to be generated may be set by a bank number and a program change number, where the bank number is taken along the abscissa, and the program change number is taken along the ordinate, as shown in FIG. 3. For instance, the sound source module uses a tone color list or table that has 128 locations in rows to which bank numbers "0" through "127" are respectively assigned, and 128 locations in columns to which program change numbers "0" through "127" are respectively assigned. A particular tone color at the address (n, m) may be selected by setting the bank number to "n", and setting the program change number to "m".
One example of the above-described tone color list is shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. It is to be noted that only two musical instrument groups of basic tones, namely, those of Piano and Bass, are shown in FIGS. 4-6, and other fourteen musical instrument groups are not shown herein. While this tone color list contains 128 banks as numbered from "0" to "127", banks following the bank number "65" are omitted in FIG. 6.
In this tone color list, eight program change numbers are assigned to each musical instrument group, and eight basic tone colors are stored in each musical instrument group. These basic tone colors are stored in the column of bank number "0", and the total number of basic tone colors stored in the bank number "0" is 128, namely 128 kinds of basic tone colors are stored in the tone color list.
Each bank having the bank number "1" to "127" may store an extended tone color that is a variation of a corresponding basic color stored in the bank number "0". The extended tone colors, however, are not necessarily stored in all of the banks having the bank numbers "1" through "127".
For example, extended tone colors of basic tone color "SynBass2" stored at the location of the program change number "40" and bank number "0" in the Bass group, for example, include an extended tone color "MelloSB1" stored at bank number "6", an extended tone color "Seq Bass" stored at bank number "12", an extended tone color "ClkSynBa" stored at bank number "18", an extended tone color "SynBa2DK" stored at bank number "19", and others. When the user selects a bank in which no extended tone color is named, musical tones having a corresponding basic tone color are generated.
When the sound source module having the above-described tone color list is used to generate musical tones, the user sets the bank number and program change number to appropriate values by means of a switch device, so that musical tones having a desired tone color are generated. This switch device consists of an increment switch and a decrement switch. In setting the bank number, the bank number is increased by 1 if the increment switch is operated by the user, and the bank number is decreased by 1 if the decrement switch is operated.
One example of setting of the bank number will be illustrated with respect to tone color "SynBass2" stored at the address of bank number "0" and program change number "40" (which will be referred to as "address (0, 40)"). If the increment switch is operated by the user while the tone color at the address (0, 40) is selected, this address is changed to address (1, 40) at which the basic tone color "Synbass2" is selected. If the increment switch is operated again, the current address is changed to address (2, 40) at which the basic tone color "Synbass2" is selected. If the increment switch is then serially operated, the current address is changed to address (3, 40) where the basic tone color "SynBass2" is selected, address (4, 40) where the basic tone color "SynBass2" is selected, address (5, 40) where the basic tone color "SynBass2" is selected, and then to the address (6, 40) where extended tone color "MelloSB1" is selected. Thus, the increment switch is operated six times so that the first extended tone color "MelloSB1" is selected. Since the second extended tone color "Seq Bass" is stored at address (12, 40) that is 6 banks ahead of the current address (6, 40), the same switch needs to be operated additional six times so as to select this extended tone color "Seq Bass".
Thus, the known sound source module has a problem that a desired tone color cannot be efficiently selected.